Cuba - rum, salsa, and cigars..

We were so ready to get to Cuba, drink Cuba Libre, dance salsa and chill on the white sandy beaches.. On our way from Peru to Cuba we had to change planes in Costa Rica, and after hours of waiting and writing our diaries, found out the plane didn't leave till the next morning. At first we got disappointed, but it turned out great in the end, for the two of us anyways. Instead of running around in Havana at midnight looking for a place to sleep, we got a free night at a nice hotel, a double bed each, and a free 3course dinner! Sweet! We even got new toothbrushes

Our "mom" in the cuban house we stayed in.

 

The first 3 nights in Havana we slept in a Casa Particulare, Cuba's version of a Hostel, which is basically to move in with a cuban family. Which we did.. A sweet lady that cooked for us as well as her family, her daughter, 37 years with downs syndrome, her husband, and her husbands mom. So she was used to looking after people. It was a nice experience, and we got to eat authentic home-made cuban food! Delicious :) 

As we were walking around Havana Vieja, on our way to find a taxi home, because we didn't feel safe to walk around Havana at night (the first place on our trip where we have felt that way actually), two guys approached us and told us both how linda (beautiful) we are. We decided to give the locals a chance, even though we were sick of being treated as tourist atractions all day, being blond, and obviously muy linda.. So we went and had a couple of beers with them, and they invited themselves to go to the beach with us the next day. And the whole next day we laid on the beach, not relaxed at all, and listened to Roberto, which was the one that could speak english, talk about how poor he was. Interesting? Not.. We figured out the only reason they were hanging out with us was that they wanted free meals, and free beers, so we told them to stick it. Was interesting to hear the local people talk about Cuba though..

 

For our last 3 nights we stayed at a hotel, with Eivind and Gunhild from back home. We had a lot of fun, nice to hang out with norwegians again.. so with them we chilled out on the beach, had cuba libre, and smoked cigars like proper cuban tourists! We went to the museo de la revolucion, and half-way interested read about the revolution, till we came to the last room, which interestingly enough, was not about the revolution, but about all the bad things the U.S have done to Cuba, so they had basically made a we-hate-the-U.S room.. Weird..

Ernesto Che Guevara, one of the revolution's most important men.

Our last night in Cuba, the 16th of April, we celebrated Tinas 21th birthday. We dressed up and went out for dinner in Havana Vieja and ate some delicious food. After dinner we wanted to find a place to dance and have a couple of drinks. On our way a cuban guy came and wanted to help us find a club, and after a while of walking we come to this place, and it's closed! He said he knew another, but it costs 10 dollar for the entrance with a "free" drink. We told him thats a bit expensive so we wanted to find a place ourselves. Then he got really pissed of and just went without even saying goodbye, so it was quite obvious he was trying to take advantage of us as well. We spent the night at the hotel bar insted, drinking cuba libre and smoking cigars! :)

Birthdaygirl :)

Havana was beautiful, full of old, classic cars, charm and nice buildings, and the casa particulare was really nice to try, but we also learned that Cuba is an interesting, complicated country, which you need more than 7 days to understand.

Lots of love from the fantastic 4! :)